On this site will be posted analyses of popular media productions. These analyses will have to do with determining the underlying meanings of various movies, songs, and certain novels. Methods used to analyze a given production will include exploration of the creators' use of symbolism, allegory, metaphor, etc., and deciphering any arcane or obscure references that it may contain.
We already suspect that Will Graham must in some sense represent the biblical figure Abraham, due to the common 'raham' in their names. However, there is more to Will's allegorical identity than this one representation. In the "Director's Cut" version of the movie DVD, there is a scene in which Molly, who has traveled from Florida, meets Will at his hotel in Washington, so they can spend a little time together even as the investigation continues. At one point during this scene, the camera dwells on Will's bare, athletic-looking upper body; this is an indication that he represents the Greek god Adonis, with whom there is a modern association with physical youth and beauty. The Greek goddess Aphrodite, whom Molly represents, was Adonis's lover and surrogate mother. The latter relationship fits with the bedroom scene in Captiva, in which Molly is holding Will close with his head under her chin, as if mothering him.
Above left: The camera dwells on Graham's lean, athletic-looking body, in the scene in which he and Molly meet at a hotel in Washington. (This scene is in the "Director's Cut" version of the movie DVD.) Above right: Molly and Will in bed at their home in Captiva, Florida.
Noah (standing) dividing the world between his sons (from left to right: Ham, Japheth, and Shem). Anonymous painter; Russia, 18th century. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Generations of Noah' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
Continuing the discussion of part 71, we now come to Saint Augustine's City of God Book 16, chapter 2:
...Shem and Japheth, that is to say, the circumcision and uncircumcision, or, as the apostle [St. Paul] otherwise calls them, the Jews and Greeks, but called and justified, having somehow discovered the nakedness of [their father, Noah] (which signifies the Saviour's passion), took a garment and laid it upon their backs, and entered backwards and covered their father’s nakedness, without their seeing what their reverence hid. For we both honor the passion of Christ as accomplished for us, and we hate the crime of the Jews who crucified Him. The garment signifies the sacrament, their backs the memory of things past: for the church celebrates the passion of Christ as already accomplished, and no longer to be looked forward to...
And when to the expression "he was naked" Scripture adds "in his house," it elegantly intimates that Jesus was to suffer the cross and death at the hands of His own household, His own kith and kin, the Jews. This passion of Christ is only externally and verbally professed by the reprobate, for what they profess, they do not understand. But the elect hold in the inner man this so great mystery, and honor inwardly in the heart this weakness and foolishness of God. And of this there is a figure in Ham going out to proclaim his father's nakedness; while Shem and Japheth, to cover or honor it, went in, that is to say, did it inwardly...
Shem, Sons of Noah. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Shem' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
In part 70 of the analysis, we analyzed Katz's and Zeller's names in an attempt to determine their heritage. We concluded that Katz represents a descendant of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah.[a] In Book 16 of City of God, Augustine discusses the line of Shem. From chapter 10:
Of the genealogy of Shem, in whose line the City of God is preserved until the time of Abraham It is necessary, therefore, to preserve the series of generations descending from Shem, for the sake of exhibiting the city of God after the flood; as before the flood it was exhibited in the series of generations descending from Seth [the third son of Adam and Eve]. And therefore does divine Scripture, after exhibiting the earthly city as Babylon or "Confusion," revert to the patriarch Shem, and recapitulate the generations from him to Abraham, specifying besides, the year in which each father begat the son that belonged to this line, and how long he lived...
When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventy-two nations [the nations of the descendants of Noah], we cannot affirm that while they had but one lip, that is, one language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true God, and that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations which descend from Shem through Arphaxad and reach to Abraham; but from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of godless exaltation, the city or society of the wicked becomes apparent. Whether it was only disguised before, or non-existent; whether both cities remained after the flood,—the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed, and in their posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son [Ham] and his descendants, from whom sprang that mighty hunter against the Lord [Nimrod],—is not easily determined. For possibly—and certainly this is more credible—there were despisers of God among the descendants of the two sons, even before Babylon was founded, and worshipers of God among the descendants of Ham. (emphasis not in original).
Recalling the common 'raham' in 'Graham' and 'Abraham', Will's presence indicates, at a metaphorical level within the movie, that the time of Abraham has come.
a. We also determined that Zeller represents a descendant of Japheth, one of Shem's brothers.
In order to help determine what is going on between Beverly Katz, the woman who does the hair analyses on the tissue note, and Brian Zeller (the fibers analyst) who 'betrays' her by divulging the truth to Will Graham (i.e., that Molly is committing incest with Kevin), we need to start at a very early point in biblical history, in specific, during the time of Noah.
The Table of Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah which appears in Genesis 10 of the Hebrew bible, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective. The significance of Noah in this context is that, according to the Hebrew bible (Genesis 6), the population of the Earth was completely destroyed during the Flood because of the wickedness of the Earth's inhabitants. Noah and his family were the sole survivors to continue the human race; consequently, all humans on Earth are descendant from him. A literal interpretation of Genesis 10 suggests that the present population of the world was descended from Noah's three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. Until the mid-19th century, this was taken by many as historical fact, and still is by many Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
Shem is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each to have yielded different translations. The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Aram, Arpachshad and Lud. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arpachshad. Shem signifies name or renown (the Scriptures have been given to us through the family of Shem, and Christ was of that family).
Japheth is often regarded as the youngest son, though some traditions regard him as the eldest. They are listed in the order Shem, Ham, and Japheth in Genesis 5:32 and 9:18, but treated in the reverse order in chapter 10. For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, Japheth is commonly believed to be the father of the Europeans. In the bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons: Gomer, Magog, Tiras, Javan, Meshech, Tubal, and Madi.
Some writers have associated Noah's sons with different skin colors or alleged races. For instance the Jewish text Pirqei R. Eliezer, depicts God as dividing the Earth among Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and attributing different skin colors to them (literally, —'blessing' them with different skin colors): light colored skin for the Japhetites, and medium dark or brown for the Semites, and dark brown or black for the Hamites.[a]
With the above in mind, let us now examine Katz's and Zeller's names:
As indicated in part 64 of the analysis, Katz is a frequent German surname, and that it is also a common Ashkenazi Jewish surname. It is an abbreviation formed from the initials of the name Kohen Tzedeq, and has been used since the seventeenth century, or perhaps somewhat earlier, as an epithet of the descendants of Aaron. In the Hebrew bible, Aaron, sometimes called 'Aaron the Levite', was the brother of Moses, and represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites. Aaron was descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and thus from Noah’s son Shem.[b] Since Beverly Katz has brownish skin, we see that she could represent a descendant of Shem. However, based on her last name alone, she could represent an Ashkenazi Jew.
Zeller: like Katz, Zeller is a German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname. In Hebrew the word Askhenaz designates the region of middle Europe now known as Germany. The patriarch Ashkenaz was Gomer’s first son, and thus descended from Japheth. In Rabbinical texts Ashkenaz is believed to be the ancestor of the Germanic, Scandinavian and Slavic peoples, because of the similarity of the names Gomer and German, and the similarity of Ashkenaz to the name of the mythological founder of the Germans and Scandinavians Aschanes or Askanius (German) and Ask (Scandinavian).[c] Since Brian Zeller has white skin, he represents a descendant of Japheth, and if we go according to the Rabbinical texts, he represents an Ashkenazi Jew.
If our 'skin color theory' is correct, then as stated, since Katz's skin is light brown, she is a descendant of Shem. As to why a woman character, not a man, is being used here to represent a descendant of Noah, recall that we said earlier in the analysis that the name 'Beverly' is androgynous. Then, it seems the clue is contained in the writings of the English poet, William Blake: referring to Shem, Blake says that he is "the Female-Male, a Male within a Female hid as in an Ark & Curtains."[d]
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim, are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany. Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews." Later, Jews from Western and Central Europe came to be called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany.[e]
a. Wikipedia, 'Generations of Noah'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_of_Noah.
b. Wikipedia, 'Katz (surname)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_(surname).
c. Wikipedia, 'Ashkenaz'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenaz.
d. Blake, William, Milton, a Poem 37:38 and Jerusalem 75:13, The Complete Writings of William Blake, Ed. Geoffrey Keynes, Nonesuch Press, 1957, in Damon, Samuel Foster and Morris Eaves, A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake, Brown, 1988, p. 371.
e. Wikipedia, 'Ashkenazi Jews'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews.
Due to the similarity of the names 'Reba' and 'Rhea', Reba represents the mythical woman Rhea Sylvia. Rhea Silvia (also written as Rea Silvia), and also known as Ilia, was the mythical mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, who founded the city of Rome.
According to Livy's account of the legend, she was the daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa and descendant of Aeneas. Numitor's younger brother Amulius seized the throne and killed Numitor's son. Amulius forced Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin, a priestess to the goddess Vesta, so that the line of Numitor would have no heirs; Vestal Virgins were sworn to celibacy for a period of thirty years. Rhea Silvia claimed that the god Mars, however, came upon her and seduced her in the forest, thereby conceiving the twins.[a] The fact that Dollarhyde represents Mars, and that he and Reba have had sex, is further evidence for a correspondence between Reba and Rhea Sylvia.
Digressing for a moment, it should be mentioned that The Order of the Vestal Virgins and its well-being was considered to have a direct bearing on the health and prosperity of the city. The prefect Symmachus wrote, "The laws of our ancestors provided for the Vestal Virgins and the ministers of the gods a moderate maintenance and just privileges. This gift was preserved inviolate till the time of the degenerate moneychangers, who diverted the maintenance of sacred chastity into a fund for the payment of base porters. A public famine ensued on this act, and a bad harvest disappointed the hopes of all the provinces... it was sacrilege which rendered the year barren, for it was necessary that all should lose that which they had denied to religion."
Zosimus records how the Christian noblewoman Serena, niece of Theodosius I, entered the Temple of Vesta and took from the statue of the goddess a necklace and placed it on her own neck. An old woman appeared, the last of the Vestal Virgins, who proceeded to rebuke Serena and called down upon her all just punishment for her act of impiety. According to Zosimus, Serena was then subject to dreadful dreams predicting her own untimely death.[b] Augustine was inspired to write his City of God (which we have been using for this analysis) in response to murmurings that the capture of Rome and the disintegration of its empire was due to the advent of the Christian era and its intolerance of the old gods who had defended the city for over a thousand years.
Returning to the subject of Rhea Sylvia, as mentioned she claimed that the god Mars came upon her and seduced her in the forest, thereby conceiving the twins Romulus and Remus. We note that Dollarhyde's house, where he and Reba had sex, is located in a wooded area reminiscent of a forest. Insofar as Reba represents Rhea Sylvia, we see that Reba was impregnated by Dollarhyde when she had sex with him. In fact, we had already determined this back in part 15 of the analysis, during the discussion of William Blake's Great Red Dragon paintings. The fact that Francis has impregnated Reba explains why, in the end (when he has her in his house, and is standing over her), he hesitates when considering whether to kill her - he 'senses' that she has his offspring within her.
a. Wikipedia, 'Rhea Sylvia'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_Silvia.
b. Wikipedia, 'Vestal Virgin'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virgin.
Left: Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC).[a] Above: Modern map of Maryland showing Baltimore and the Washington, D.C. area.[b] The ancient city of Heliopolis is located in Lower Egypt, and Hermopolis near the border between Upper and Lower Egypt. Since the Nile flows from south to north in this region, and the Potomac River flows from north to south near Washington, then if we rotate the map of Egypt around 180 degrees, the two regions appear somewhat similar: we can take the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay combined, as the Nile River, Baltimore can be taken as Hermopolis, and Washington as Heliopolis.
Above left: The Al-Masalla obelisk, the largest surviving monument from Heliopolis, Egypt.[c] Above right: Washington Monument, Washington, D.C.[d]
Heliopolis (Greek: Ἡλίου πόλις or Ἡλιούπολις), meaning sun-city, was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome. In ancient times it was the principal seat of sun-worship, thus its name, which means city of the sun in Greek. Heliopolis contains the earliest temple obelisk still in its original position.[e]
In Manhunter, the Washington Monument is the prominently visible white building that can be seen through the window of a hotel Molly and Will are staying at, at one point in the movie (pointed to by the arrow in the screecap at left). It is an obelisk, and it corresponds to the obelisk in Heliopolis (in the lower left photo above).
What all of this amounts to when applied to our movie, is that while Lecktor resides in Baltimore, his main cult center is located in Washington: Beverly Katz, and as we will see, other FBI personnel located in Washington, who are deceiving Graham during the lab analyses on the tissue note, and in the investigators' meeting, represent metaphorical 'worshipers' of Lecktor as a kind of sun god.
a. Image from the Wikipedia 'Ancient Egypt' page; Ancient Egypt map-en by Jeff Dahl, licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons.
b. Image: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
c. Image from the Wikipedia 'Heliopolis' page; Obelisk-SesostrisI-Heliopolis by Didia (David Schmid), licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
d. Image from the Wikipedia 'Washington Monument' page; Washington Monument Dusk Jan 2006 by Diliff, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.
e. Wikipedia, 'Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopolis_(Ancient_Egypt).
Graham smokes while Jack Crawford tells him, that the tool used on the Jacobis' tree was a common bolt cutter.
The Greek god Hermes, whom Hannibal Lecktor represents, was considered to be a psychopomp. Psychopomps (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός (psychopompos), literally meaning the "guide of souls") are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife.
In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms.[a] Hannibal Lecktor acts as a mediator between these two components of Will Graham's psyche; at various places in the movie, ideas seem to 'emerge' from Will's unconscious into his conscious mind. For example, upon seeing the severed branch in the tree in the Jacobis' back yard, Will's unconscious 'knew' that the instrument used to cut it was also intended to be used to break into the Jacobis' house, but he did not consciously recognize this fact until later, while going over the Jacobis' home movies with Crawford. An intervening event occurred in which Crawford told Will that the tool used to sever the branch was a common bolt cutter. This piece of information, coupled with the initial 'recognition' upon seeing the branch, came together in Will's mind upon viewing the home movies. Graham was smoking at the point when Crawford relayed the important information to him (i.e., about the tool being a bolt cutter), and as discussed in part 64 of the analysis, smoking indicates the 'presence' of Lecktor/Hermes. The point is that here, Lecktor was acting as Will's psychopomp.
a. Wikipedia, 'Psychopomp'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopomp.
A type of biblical event which seems to repeat itself as if in a reoccurring cycle, is that of a major prophet predicting the downfall of a civilization: we have gone over Jonah prophesying the downfall of the city of Ninevah, Jeremiah that of Israel, and most notably, John of Patmos prophesying the end of Babylon in the book of Revelation. We here begin with Augustine's City of God 12:13, which is titled, Of the Revolution of the Ages, Which Some Philosophers Believe Will Bring All Things Round Again, After a Certain Fixed Cycle, to the Same Order and Form as at First:
[Some philosophers have introduced the idea of] cycles of time, in which there should be a constant renewal and repetition of the order of nature; and they have therefore asserted that these cycles will ceaselessly recur, one passing away and another coming, though they are not agreed as to whether one permanent world shall pass through all these cycles, or whether the world shall at fixed intervals die out, and be renewed so as to exhibit a recurrence of the same phenomena—the things which have been, and those which are to be, coinciding...
Some, too, in advocating these recurring cycles that restore all things to their original cite in favor of their supposition what Solomon says in the book of Ecclesiastes: “What is that which hath been? It is that which shall be. And what is that which is done? It is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Who can speak and say, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.”[Eccles. 1.9-10 ] This he said either of those things of which he had just been speaking—the succession of generations, the orbit of the sun, the course of rivers,—or else of all kinds of creatures that are born and die. For men were before us, are with us, and shall be after us; and so all living things and all plants...
However, some would understand these words as meaning that in the predestination of God all things have already existed, and that thus there is no new thing under the sun. At all events, far be it from any true believer to suppose that by these words of Solomon those cycles are meant, in which, according to those philosophers, the same periods and events of time are repeated; as if, for example, the philosopher Plato, having taught in the school at Athens which is called the Academy, so, numberless ages before, at long but certain intervals, this same Plato and the same school, and the same disciples existed, and so also are to be repeated during the countless cycles that are yet to be,—far be it, I say, from us to believe this.
For once Christ died for our sins; and, rising from the dead, He dieth no more. “Death hath no more dominion over Him";[Romans 6.9] and we ourselves after the resurrection shall be “ever with the Lord,”[Thess 4.16] to whom we now say, as the sacred Psalmist dictates, “Thou shall keep us, O Lord, Thou shall preserve us from this generation.”[Ps. 12.7] And that too which follows, is, I think, appropriate enough: “The wicked walk in a circle,” not because their life is to recur by means of these circles, which these philosophers imagine, but because the path in which their false doctrine now runs is circuitous. (emphasis in original; biblical citations inside square brackets in original).
The caduceus, one of the symbols of the Greek god Hermes. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Caduceus' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
In that Hannibal Lecktor represents the Greek god Hermes, in this capacity one of his symbols is the caduceus. The caduceus is typically depicted as a short herald's staff entwined by two serpents in the form of a double helix, and is sometimes surmounted by wings. It is sometimes erroneously used as a symbol for medicine, especially in North America, due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius, which has only a single snake and no wings. Since Lecktor is a doctor, it makes sense that one of his symbols has to do with medicine; but since it is technically not the correct symbol, what is being inferred is that he is some kind of 'false doctor', i.e., one who does not truly heal: he is in one sense trying to heal Will, but ultimately he is leading him to his destruction. Of additional note is that In later Antiquity the caduceus might have provided the basis for the astrological symbol representing the planet Mercury and in Roman iconography was often depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars and thieves.[a]
a. Wikipedia, 'Caduceus'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus.
We recall that in Lecktor's prison cell, there is a silver-colored sink (no doubt made of stainless steel), within which is some sort of light-emitting device which gives the inside of the sink a violet "glow."
We need to determine whether there is any relationship between Lecktor's plans for Will, and the fact that Beverly Katz is trying to deceive Will in the investigator's meeting. First, we note that when Will and Crawford first bring Katz the tissue note and hair samples from Baltimore, Katz is standing near a microscope in a large laboratory area, and against the far left (from our perspective) wall of this lab, there are several large bins or enclosed recesses in the wall which have a violet color, very similar to the glow in Lecktor's sink as described above. This suggests some relationship between Katz and Lecktor.
Katz's work area. Note the violet coloring of the enclosures at the left-hand side of the screencap.
We need to investigate the underlying symbolism and metaphor in the movie, to determine what the relationship between Katz and Lecktor is.
Let us begin with Katz's name. Katz is a frequent German surname. It is also a common Ashkenazi Jewish surname. It is, along with Cohen, the oldest and most common of Jewish last names. It is an abbreviation formed from the initials of the name Kohen Tzedeq, and has been used since the seventeenth century, or perhaps somewhat earlier, as an epithet of the descendants of Aaron. The collocation is most likely derived from Melchizedek ("king of righteousness"), who is called the priest ("kohen") of the most high God (Genesis 14.18).[a] The following passage is contained in Genesis 14:17-20, which falls under the heading, "Abram Blessed by Melchizedek" (Abram is the same person as Abraham):
17. After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). 18. Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19. and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. [New International Version]
The common 'raham' in the names Graham and Abraham implies that Will Graham represents a descendant of Abraham. Thus, we can now see the overall metaphorical meaning of the events taking place among Graham, Katz, and Lecktor: Katz represents (a descendant of) Melchizedek, and she is praising Lecktor (her 'god most high') for delivering Graham's enemies (Molly, Bloom, and Kevin) to him (that is, to Will): recall that Lecktor's book code message, which is intercepted during the investigators' meeting, is designed to send Will to Captiva to "kill them all."
According to the online Encyclopedia Britannica, Melchizedek is an old Canaanite name meaning "My King Is [the god] Sedek" or "My King Is Righteousness" (the meaning of the similar Hebrew cognate). Salem, of which he is said to be king, is very probably Jerusalem. Psalm 76:2 refers to Salem in a way that implies that it is synonymous with Jerusalem, and the reference in Gen. 14:17 to "the King's Valley" further confirms this identification. The god whom Melchizedek serves as priest is "El 'Elyon," again a name of Canaanite origin, probably designating the high god of their pantheon. (Later, the Hebrews adapted another Canaanite name as an appellation for God.)[b] However, in our allegory described above, Katz, as a descendant of Melchizedek, is serving the Canaanite deity Baal, and this within the context that Baal is another name for the Devil, of whom Lecktor is a personification. (Later in the analysis, we will see that the name Hannibal is etymologically connected to the name Baal).
Based on the above, we see that Katz and Lecktor are in league with each other. We will talk about this some more later, and we will also attempt to find out if any of the other FBI personnel are working against Will.
a. Wikipedia, 'Katz (surname)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_(name).
b. 'Melchizedek'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016. URL = https://www.britannica.com/biography/Melchizedek.
A harvest moon. The orange color is not due to its being a harvest moon, but is instead due to the fact that it is close to the horizon. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Full moon' page, licensed under GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.]
We know that Dollarhyde has an (imagined) relationship with the moon - he kills only during the full moon. In the Graham 'revelation' scene, it is indicated (by Graham) that the Jacobis were murdered on August 1st. Let us consider the year in which Manhunter is set to be 1985 (the movie was released in 1986). According to the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department,[a] there was a full moon on the night of July 31st, 1985, at 9:41 p.m., so Dollarhyde must have committed the Jacobi murders after midnight that night. The next full moon in 1985 was on August 30th, at 9:27 a.m. The second set of murders, the Leeds murders, were committed on (or within one day either way of) this day in August. The next full moon after this, was on September 29th at 9 minutes after midnight (that is, at 00:09 on September 29th). This was the night Dollarhyde had Reba in his house.
The full moon in late September/very early October occurs close to the date of the autumnal equinox in any given year, and is called the harvest moon. Thus, there was a harvest moon on the night Dollarhyde was menacing Reba. The harvest moon is often mistaken for the modern day hunter's moon, which actually occurs one month later. Hunter's moon is also known as blood moon. As we will see later in the analysis, metaphorically speaking, Dollarhyde 'mistook' the harvest moon for the blood/hunter's moon.
a. U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department, "Dates of Moon Phases". Web. URL = http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_phases.pl?year=1985&month=7&day=1&nump=50&format=p.
Image from the Winchester Bible, showing the seven ages within the opening letter "I" of the book of Genesis. This image is the final age, the Last Judgement. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Six Ages of the World' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
The number six (6) comes up at least twice in the movie: In the pier scene, Will tells Molly that "We [the investigators] got about six days until the next full moon." Later, Will angrily accuses Crawford of bringing him into the Tooth Fairy case "knowing God damn well" that he'd imagine "families three, four, five, and six." These mentions of the number 6 refer to the Six Ages of the World.
The Six Ages of the World is a Christian historical periodization outline first written about by Saint Augustine circa 400 AD. It is based along Christian religious events, from the birth of Adam to the events of Revelation. The six ages of history, with each age lasting approximately 1000 years, were widely believed and in use throughout the Middle Ages, and until the Enlightenment, the writing of history was largely the filling out of all or some part of this outline.
The outline accounts for Seven Ages, just as there are seven days of the week, with the Seventh Age being eternal rest after the Final Judgement and End Times, just as the seventh day of the week is reserved for rest. It was normally called the Six Ages of the World because they were the ages of the world, of history, while the Seventh Age was not of this world and lasting forever. The Six Ages are best described in the words of Saint Augustine, found in De catechizandis rudibus (On the catechizing of the uninstructed), Chapter 22:
1) The First Age: "The first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood." 2) The Second Age: "[E]xtends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations.." 3) The Third Age: "For the third age extends from Abraham on to David the king." 4) The Fourth Age: "The fourth from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia." 5) The Fifth Age: "The fifth from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ." 6) The Sixth Age: "With His [Jesus Christ's] coming the sixth age has entered on its process."
Augustine was not the first to conceive of the Six Ages, which had its roots in the Jewish tradition, but he was the first to write about it with authority. The theory originates from a passage in 2 Peter: "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." [2 Peter 3:8, New International Version] From this it was taken to mean that mankind would live through six 1,000 year periods (or "days"), with the seventh being eternity in heaven.
Christian scholars believed it was possible to determine how long man had been alive, starting with Adam, by counting forward how long each generation had lived up to the time of Jesus, based on the ages recorded in the bible. While the exact age of the Earth was a matter of biblical interpretive debate, it was generally agreed man was somewhere in the last and final thousand years, the Sixth Age, and the final Seventh Age could happen at any time. The world was seen as an old place, and the future would be much shorter than the past; a common image was of the world growing old.
The Ages reflect the seven days of creation, of which the last day is the rest of the Sabbath, illustrating the human journey to find eternal rest with God, a common Christian narrative.[a]
a. Wikipedia, 'Six Ages of the World'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Ages_of_the_World.
The Prophet Jonah, as depicted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Jonah' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
Recall our previous discussion of Jonah, and references to the number three in the movie. We will here quote briefly from City of God, to get Augustine's view on what was being prophesied by Jonah's experience. From book 18, chapter 30:
The prophet Jonah, not so much by speech as by his own painful experience, prophesied Christ's death and resurrection much more clearly than if he had proclaimed them with his voice. For why was he taken into the whale's belly and restored on the third day, but that he might be a sign that Christ should return from the depths of hell on the third day?
As stated in part 52 of the analysis, where a list of references to the number three in the movie was given, they are all references to the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the whale.
Graham (left) and Crawford, sitting on a beach log in the film's opening scene.
The name 'Jack' is derived from Jackin (earlier Jankin), a medieval diminutive of John.[a] 'John' is an English form of Iohannes, the Latin form of the Greek name Ιωαννης (Ioannes), itself derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "YAHWEH is gracious." "[The name John] owes its popularity to two New Testament characters, both highly revered saints. The first was John the Baptist, a Jewish ascetic who was considered the forerunner of Jesus Christ. The second was the apostle John, who was also supposedly the author of the fourth Gospel and Revelation."[b]
The name symbolism of 'Jack' indicates that Jack Crawford represents John the Baptist.
a. Behind the Name, 'Jack'. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.behindthename.com/name/jack.
b. Behind the Name, 'John'. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.behindthename.com/name/john.
To begin this post, we recall that in part 22 of the analysis, an article published in 1913 in a magazine called The Word says that if man is a microcosm of the universe, the planets and visible stars must be represented within him.
Hermetic tradition draws a set of correspondences between the seven classical planets, the seven angels, the seven vital bodily organs, and the seven metals. As listed in Waite's The Hermetic Museum,[a] these correspondences are as follows (leaving out the seven angels): Saturn, the spleen, and lead; Jupiter, the liver, and tin; Mars, the diaphragm, and iron; the sun, the heart, and gold; Venus, the reins (i.e., the kidneys), and copper; Mercury, the lungs, and quicksilver;[b] and the moon, the brain, and silver.
The specific correspondence we are interested in for right now, is the one between the planet Mercury, the lungs, and quicksilver. The reason for starting here is that we know Will Graham is shown smoking in at least two or three scenes, and smoking is a habit which affects the lungs.
Since Will is smoking just prior to his call to Lecktor (see screencap at left), then in accordance with the Hermetic correspondences, the indication is that he is at this point coming under the influence of Mercury, whose Greek 'equivalent' was Hermes. Hermes is the great Messenger of the gods as well as a guide to the underworld. What does either of these have to do with Will Graham? To answer this, we recall the prison conversation between Will and Lecktor, during which Lecktor refers to the Tooth Fairy as a "pilgrim." But, since Lecktor directs the note he later writes at Graham, that is, since Graham is to think that the thoughts in the note are his own, then he is to consider himself as being this pilgrim.
In Dante's Inferno (which we've used before in this analysis, in part 16 when we talked about contrapasso), the Roman poet Virgil is Dante's guide through the underworld. The writer Dante is commonly differentiated from the character being guided in that the former is called "Dante the Poet", and the latter, "Dante the Pilgrim." We can readily see that Lecktor is 'guiding' Will through a metaphorical underworld - a world inhabited by Dollarhyde, whom as we've said represents the 'presence' of Satan. If Graham is taken as a pilgrim in the Dantean sense, then he can be taken in the same way as one who is being guided through the underworld by Hermes; thus we see that on some level, Lecktor represents Hermes (and also, by implication, Mercury). As listed above, Hermetic tradition associates Mercury with the lungs and quicksilver.
Above left: In the scene in which Will is in the Jacobis' back yard, he at one point spots a 'Mars' candy wrapper. This is a clue that Dollarhyde represents Mars (and his Greek 'equivalent', Ares), since it appears that Francis is the person who left the wrapper, while he was casing the Jacobi household. Above right: Since Graham starts to 'imitate' what Dollarhyde must have done at this point, e.g., climb the tree near the candy wrapper in order to see into the Jacobi household, this means that Graham is here under the influence of Mars/Ares.
As indicated above, Dollarhyde represents Mars, and therefore also Ares, the Greek god of war or, more properly, the spirit of battle. Ares represented the distasteful aspects of brutal warfare and slaughter.[c] As indicated above, Hermetic tradition associates Mars with the diaphragm and iron.
As an aside, since Lecktor represents Hermes/Mercury, and since Mercury's father was the god Jupiter, Lecktor also represents the 'presence' of Jupiter.
a. Waite, Arthur Edward. The Hermetic Museum, Vol. 2. Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck. p. 266.
b. Quicksilver is another name for elemental mercury, that is, mercury the metal, as is found, for example, in older thermometers.
c. 'Ares'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 18 Nov. 2016. URL = https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ares-Greek-mythology.
Top left: After the investigators' meeting, Brian Zeller indicates to Will that he wants to see him. Will and Zeller must have met not long after this, and during this meeting, Brian told Will something that led him to conclude that the incest between Molly and Kevin was occurring. The point is that Will initially found out about the incest from Brian. Top right: The fact that Will knew about the incest occurring between Molly and Kevin, prior to the Graham family being relocated from Captiva, is indicated by the fact that at the beginning of the relocation scene, while the Graham family is walking up to the front door of their new (temporary) residence, Kevin is walking close to Will and at a distance from Molly - it is as if Will is trying to 'guard' his son against her, implying that he considers her a danger to Kevin. Above left and right: Kevin himself feels no sense of danger from his own mom, as indicated by the fact that when Will suggests to Kevin that he run down to the dock, Kevin says, "I wanna hang around here. I'm in the kitchen, mom." - as if Molly needs protection from Will.
As indicated in part 49 of the analysis, Molly admits to Will while at the new location, that she is Kevin's natural mother and that she has been having incest with him. What prompted her into these admissions is that Will confronted her about the incest, which as stated abovve, he found out about from Zeller.
Molly Graham represents the Greek goddess, Aphrodite.
It's time to nail down the familial relationship between Dr. Bloom and Molly. We know that our Molly corresponds, at least in name, to the Molly Bloom character from James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, so, noting that she and the doctor appear to be close to each other in age, she is either his sister or his cousin. Dr. Bloom represents the Greek god, Dionysos (also spelled 'Dionysus'). Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele. Molly represents Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty and sexuality. This is what is being intimated by the close-up we get of her in Will's dream, in which she is wearing white clothing and sandals - the camera dwells on her, as if to emphasize her beauty and sexuality (see the screencap above).
In Homer's Iliad, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Noting that Dionysus and Aphrodite have the same father, Zeus, but not the same mother, we conclude that Dr. Bloom and Molly are half-siblings. Thus, their marriage was an incestuous one. As we might have guessed, St. Augustine has something to say on marriage between relatives. From Book 15, chapter 16 of City of God:
Of marriage between-blood relations, in regard to which the present law could not bind the men of the earliest ages As, therefore, the human race, subsequently to the first marriage of the man who was made of dust, and his wife who was made out of his side, required the union of males and females in order that it might multiply, and as there were no human beings except those who had been born of these two, men took their sisters for wives - an act which was as certainly dictated by necessity in these ancient days as afterwards it was condemned by the prohibitions of religion...
And we see that, since the human race has increased and multiplied, this is so strictly observed even among the profane worshipers of many and false gods, that though their laws perversely allow a brother to marry his sister,[a] yet custom, with a finer morality, prefers to forego this license; and though it was quite allowable in the earliest ages of the human race to marry one's sister, it is now abhorred as a thing which no circumstances could justify.
For custom has very great power either to attract or to shock human feeling. And in this matter, while it restrains concupiscence within due bounds, the man who neglects and disobeys it is justly branded as abominable. For if it is iniquitous to plough beyond one's own boundaries through the greed of gain, is it not much more iniquitous to transgress the recognized boundaries of morals through sexual lust?
a. This was allowed by the Egyptians and the Athenians, but never by the Romans.
Recall from part 24 of the analysis that a portion of the bible's Gospel of John, chapter 1, says,
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world came into being through him...
We have observed that Will Graham has at some point been tempted by Lecktor into trying to effectively become the Light itself - Will starts to believe that he can become as God is. Another name for Satan is Lucifer, which as an adjective can mean 'light-bearing'. Since Dollarhyde is trying to become the red dragon, representing Satan, then he too wants to become a certain 'light'. In fact, he is even planning on displacing Lecktor, who is himself a personification of Satan.
In consideration of the above, we now have a clearer picture of how it is that Lecktor's part of the tissue note functions as if either Graham or Dollarhyde could have written it, and can thus be used to manipulate Graham - "I know that you alone can understand what I am becoming. You alone know the people I use to help me in these things are only elements undergoing change to fuel the radiance of what I am becoming, just as the source of light is burning..." (emphasis not in original).
'Shades' of the extraterrestrial in Manhunter: Clockwise from upper left: table lamp in Chilton's office; floor lamp in Dollarhyde's house; wall lamp in Dollarhyde's house; floor lamp in Graham 'revelation' scene.
Top left: Hannibal Lecktor closes a book when he hears someone begin to enter his cell area (click image to enlarge). Note that Lecktor is holding a blue object in his right hand. Top right: The person turns out to be a guard Lecktor is expecting, to bring him a phone that he has requested in order to make an outside call. Note the absence of a wedding band or any kind of ring, on the guard's left hand. Above left: The guard passes the phone through to Lecktor's cell. Note that the guard has dark hair. Lecktor placed his altered version of Dollarhyde's note in the book when he heard the guard approaching , and now, he wants the guard to 'catch' him with the 'hidden' note in his cell. However, the guard does not notice Lecktor hiding the note this time around. The guard has had Lecktor stand up against his bunk and face away from the guard toward his cell wall, and therefore, the guard cannot see the book, which is lying on the bunk, since his view of it is blocked by Lecktor's body. The blue object Lecktor was holding is the felt-tip pen that he used to mark over a portion of his own part of the note, and part of Dollarhyde's note. Above right: While the guard is leaving the cell area, Lecktor says, "Thank you so much. I'll call you when I'm finished." This statement indicates that Lecktor is exercising control over the guard - Lecktor has him under some form hypnosis such that he can make 'suggestions' to the guard's unconscious, that the guard do certain things (not necessarily just this guard; note that this must be how Lecktor obtained the pen and scissors he used to prepare the note).
Above left: A different guard than the one discussed above (note the presence of a wedding band on this guard's hand) has entered Dr. Chilton's office with the altered tissue note, and tells the doctor that Lecktor was caught hiding it in a book when his cell area was entered for cleaning. Lecktor has now succeeded in getting 'caught'. We cannot see the guard's head at any point in this scene, so we're initially unsure what color hair he has. However, when Chilton tells the guard to put the tissue note on his desk, he says to the guard, "Put it down on my desk blotter", and the guard does so; but the way Chilton has said this also could be taken to sound like he's saying, "Put it down on my desk, Blonner", as if calling the guard by his name or nickname, in turn suggesting that the guard has blond hair. After the guard puts the note down, Chilton verifies that no one but the guard has seen it. Above right: Chilton, now connected by phone with Graham and Crawford, goes over the note. He is careful not to touch it, and at one point during the phone conversation, Graham tells the doctor that he wants the note to be placed back in Lecktor's cell, after it has been examined by the FBI (in Washington) and then returned to the prison (in Baltimore), such that Lecktor will not realize that it has been found. In saying that he want this done, Graham is preserving his 'therapeutic bond' with Lecktor.
Regarding the toilet tissue note, it's a logical assumption that Lecktor would have removed any foreign material that might be on the note, i.e., any piece of Dollarhyde's hair that was already on it, before hiding it in the book in his cell. Also, note that the blond guard is not the same man who had earlier brought Lecktor a phone, since the latter man has dark hair.
With the above things in mind, we note that shortly after Katz mentions the presence of a half-inch strand of blond hair on the note, she asks Graham, who is standing next to her (see screencap at left), "Wha-da-ye have for negative comparison?", ostensibly to be heard as, "What do you have for negative comparison?"; but her slurring of the statement, as indicated by the first spelling of it just given, and including saying the word "for" very quickly, makes it sound more like, "We have negative comparison." Since the samples that Graham has brought for comparison include samples of the guard's hair, this statement by Katz is not only a hint to the Manhunter audience that she plans on deceiving Graham about the source of the hair on the note (the implication of her slurred statement being that the hair will not match any of the samples Graham brought with him), but it is also a 'suggestion' of this same idea to Graham's unconscious, so that he will not question Katz's confidence when she later states the result of the analysis she does on the hair (i.e., that the hair found on the note matches the blond hair found at the Jacobi crime scene, thus confirming that the tissue note was written by the Tooth Fairy).
The fact is that the guard who brought Chilton the note has blond hair, and he got one of his blond arm hairs on the note while handling it. As mentioned above, the hair found was one-half inch long, which sounds right for the length of a large man's arm hair; we can tell the guard is large when we see him standing in Chilton's office.
Now we know where the hair on the tissue note actually came from; and we know that Katz is trying to trick or mislead Graham. The issue of why she would try to do this, will be discussed later in the analysis.
Disclaimers 1) In certain instances it has been determined that the creators of some of the productions analyzed on this blog, and/or the creators of source material(s) used in the making of these productions, may be making negative statements about certain segments of society in their productions. These statements should be taken as expressing the opinions of no one other than the creators.
2) This blog is not associated with any of the studios, creators, authors, publishers, directors, actors, musicians, writers, editors, crew, staff, agents, or any other persons or entities involved at any stage in the making of any of the media productions or source materials that are analyzed, mentioned, or referenced herein.
3) In keeping with the policies of the filmmakers, authors, studios, writers, publishers, and musicians, that have created the productions (and their source materials) that are analyzed, mentioned, or referenced on this blog, any similarity of the characters in these films or source materials to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Saint Augustine's Confessions andCity of God from Wikisource (except where otherwise noted); portions from Wikisource used on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica from the 'Logos Virtual Library' website (except where otherwise noted), compiled and edited by Darren L. Slider; believed to be in public domain.
